City Initiative News

The Seoul Institute of Technology (SIT) is holding an open competition for mask filter and alternative mask technologies to respond to a shortage of face masks caused by the nationwide COVID-19 outbreak. Any Korean or foreign citizen, university, research institute or private company can take part in the competition.

The two subjects of the technology competition are as follows:

Subject 1: Health protection mask filter that can substitute the pre-existing MB filter (application period from March 9 to April 8)

Subject 2: New concept mask or mask technology that can substitute the function of pre-existing face masks (application period from March 9 to May 8)

Korean and foreign individuals, groups and private companies that intend on participating in this crowd-sourcing technology competition can access the New Technology Submission Portal on the official SIT website to apply. Please click the link below to get information on the competition available in English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic.

The winners will be selected by a process of document evaluation (1st round), functional evaluation (2nd round) and presentation evaluation (3rd round). The final winners who are proven to possess excellent innovative technology through the evaluation screening will receive up to KRW 100 million for each subject and the Seoul Metropolitan Government will apply the respective technology into practice.

※ If more than one winner is selected for a single subject, the prize will be divided (up to KRW 50 million each). The amount of divided prize money will be determined according to the results of the evaluation. It is possible that no winners are awarded if no technology is adequate enough to pass all the evaluations.
The technology competition has been designed to make practical use of mask technologies suggested by citizens so that the state of emergency as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak can be assuaged as soon as possible as well as for citizens and the city to return to the status quo.